I was born and raised into one of the smaller
sects of Mormonism. My family ties go back to the very founding of
Mormonism. I became a member of the Mormon faith at the age of
eight, and never questioned the things taught to me while growing
up. I called myself a Christian, and said that I believed, but I had
no understanding of genuine Christianity.

In my teenage years and young adult life, I
lived in sin, and it did not bother me. I had issues with my anger.
I was also caught up in the things of this world with all of its
fleshly desires. I can even remember a time in my life when I
actually counted the cost of what it meant to be a true follower,
but I was unwilling to give up my sin. As a teenager I once attended
a Baptist service with my girlfriend, that I would later marry, and
someone asked me “Are you Saved?” I really had no idea what that
meant, but I thought to myself “Of course I am saved; I am a member
of the one and only true church.”

The bible speaks of two gates in Matthew
chapter 7 the narrow and the wide. The wide gate points this way to
heaven but it leads to destruction in hell. Only the narrow gate
(Jesus Christ) leads to eternal life. Jesus Christ warned that not
everyone who calls him Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. This
was me; I was a false convert for 30 years of my life. I was only
paying lip service to God while mocking him by the life I was
living.

The sect of Mormonism that I was raised in went
through many power struggles, splits, and divisions. One question I
could never wrap my mind around was this; “With so much split and
division, how can this be the one and only true church?” As I
pondered this question I started to pray to the Lord that I wanted
to know the truth. About nine years ago, around the age of 30, the
Lord answered my prayer. He opened my eyes and gave me a new heart
with a desire to search him out.

Ezekiel 36:26 says, “And I will give you a
new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove
the heart of stone from you flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And
I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

I then desperately needed to know the answer to
the question; “What must I do to be saved?” I began to study and
for the first time was able to really understand the gospel. God is
holy, righteous, and just and must punish sin. The bible says, “That
the wages of sin is death.” God was not first in my life. I was
an idolater because I had created a God in my mind that did not care
about sin. I became undone, the Holy Spirit had convicted me of the
sin in my life and I knew that I deserved the justice and wrath of
God.

As I continued to study I realized that I never
understood that Jesus Christ is God himself in the flesh. My eyes
were opened to understand the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The only way God can forgive sin is through Jesus Christ. His
perfect sinless sacrifice paid the penalty for sinners, when the
wrath of God was poured out on him in our place.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he
made him to be sin who know no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.”

As I continued to study the Gospel, God
revealed to me that my life was lacking repentance. I had never been
willing to turn away from my sin and surrender to Christ as Lord.
Since that time, my life has been completely changed through God’s
saving Grace. The sinful things I once loved to do, now have no
power over my life. I now love and desire the things of God.

Coming out of Mormonism was a process that did
not happen over night. I was finally able to fully let it go after
coming out in stages. Christ has transformed my marriage and family.
After saving me he also saved my son Derek. We were baptized
together on September 23rd, 2007 as a public testimony of
his saving Grace.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you are saved
through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift –
not from works, so that no one can boast.”